Ellie's Treasures Tuts-for-any-Program-Sponge Tiles

Click here or scroll down to see alternate tiles They will both open in a new window and print out on standard 8½" X 11" paper For information about which fonts, programs, etc I used to construct my pages and my headers, click here.
For this tutorial you will need: Any graphics program that allows 3rd party filters, such as the ones used here. You can even do it in free programs that use filters, such as IrfanView. There are instructions on their home site about adding filters to the program. Filters and materials needed Fantastic Machines Paint Engine, available free here No other materials are needed ***************** I am assuming you know the basics of your graphics program and where the tools can be located. This is an extremely easy tutorial and can be done by beginners.
Here are some arrows and bars you can drag and drop where you need to mark or underline where you are. . Just left click and drag to where you want it then let go. They will stay where you put them until you close your browser.
1. Open a new canvas, 200 X 200 pixels and flood fill with the color of your choice.
2. Go to Effects (or Filters)>Fantastic Machines>Paint Engine Go to your folder C://Windows and look for a file called fmachine.ini Open it with notepad and copy and paste this line at the bottom, exactly as it is here Setting53=Ellie's sponge;1,1,0,0,0,9,77,0,14,2,68,119,92,36,-9,-7,0,0,4294967230,51 Save (to the same spot) and close. When you open your FM Paint Engine you will see the new setting in the drop down menu at the bottom, where you can see the words Ellie's Sponge below. If you would rather put them in manually, here are the settings After putting them in, click on the save button and give it a name. See the buttons on the bottom right? They are labeled R G and B. Try each one to see what gives you the best effect. Now just check Wrap Edges (bottom left) and apply. Note: Make sure you check wrap edges to get a seamless tile
3.That's it! You're done!!
Note: As you can see, you can barely see it on the blue. I put it here to show you that it doesn't work well on that color. In the second sample I applied the unsharp mask (found in the Effect or Filter menu, in the Sharpen category) 4-5 times at maximum setting. In the third one I added noise to the second tile where I had applied the unsharp mask. So if you want to use a bright color like this and you can't see the effect much, try those methods to bring it out.
You're done! Don't forget to optimize PSP: (File>Export>Jpeg Optimizer). I usually optimize at about 20. PI: I usually optimize at about 80 PS and PSE: I usually save at about 8.
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l hope you had fun! Back to top
If you have any questions or suggestions, click on the email button below to contact me. Have a wonderful day!
Tutorial was written June 12, 2005 ************ These tutorials are all my own creations. Any resemblance to any other tutorial is purely coincidental and unintentional. Feel free to share any of my tutorials on this site by a link back to my site, but do not copy and send the entire tutorial to anyone or any group. You do not need my permission to share a text link only to this tutorial. You may also save it to your hard drive (go to File>Save As, and save as an mht file- this will save the pictures with the page in one single file and will open in a browser. If not available, save as Web Page, complete (.htm, .html). This will save it with the pictures in a separate folder) or print it out for your own personal use. ©2003-2010 Ellie's Treasures Buy.com Computer Products

Back to top Webpage Design Information This webpage background was made in PhotoImpact with a tutorial by Deb DeHaven Sadly, she passed away and her site is gone. The font I used for all of the text on the buttons is BrockScript The font I used for the "Sponge Tile" tutorial header is Calligraphia. Click on the font name to download the font. I use PhotoImpact to make all of my headers due to the amazing 3D text it has and the wonderful presets available free online Most of the presets I use are either the ones that come with PhotoImpact, usually the Gel ones, or from Deb's PI Tutorials and More (see below) or Carol Oyl's site This is the address to Deb's old pages http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/millenit/1716/pitutorials/objects/presets/presets1.html I can't find any links to her new pages but the presets are still on this page for download. For more sites to find PI Presets, take a look at my Great Beginnings page.